Whitaker Bayou is a highly urbanized basin that has changed in land use and hydrology since the mid-1900s. The Sarasota County 1847 General Land Office Survey indicates that Whitaker Bayou only extended about a quarter of a mile inland from the bay. The survey also displays a separate waterway that extends inland from 0.25 mile northeast of the head of Whitaker Bayou. Seasonal patterns in freshwater inflows have not changed significantly between historic and current conditions, indicating that changes in land use have not altered the intra-annual pattern of inflows to the bay. Land use has, however, affected the magnitude of total inflow to the bay, if not the relative contributions of individual sources (runoff, baseflow, irrigation, point sources). For full basin details see: Sarasota Bay Water Quality Management Plan (2012)

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Whitaker Bayou

Water Chemistry Ratings | Freshwater Portion of the Creek

Creek Conditions Ratings are based on comparing nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorophyll and dissolved oxygen to water quality guidelines or regulations.
Florida law defines a maximum allowable concentration of nitrogen, phosphorus,
and chlorophyll a, and a minimum allowable concentration of dissolved oxygen in these streams.
Learn more about these ratings and how they are calculated »

Data for the following WBIDs is averaged when compiling the data below:

Five-year Rolling Average

Chlorophyll a

The rating for Total Phosphorus is determined by comparing the annual geometric mean of its sampled values to fixed target and threshold values. The geometric mean is found by multiplying together all the sample values for the calendar year and then taking the nth root of the result, where n is the number of samples. The annual geometric mean for Total Phosphorus is shown in the graph at left, as compared to its established target and threshold values.

Five-year Rolling Average

Other Measures of Creek Health:

Water Chemistry Ratings | Tidal Portion of the Creek

Creek Conditions Ratings are based on comparing nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorophyll and dissolved oxygen to water quality guidelines or regulations.
Florida law defines a maximum allowable concentration of chlorophyll a and a minimum allowable concentration of dissolved oxygen in these streams.
Florida has no regulatory thresholds for nitrogen or phosphorus in tidal creeks so trends are used to rate the creeks.
Learn more about these ratings and how they are calculated »

Data for the following WBIDs is averaged when compiling the data below:

Five-year Rolling Average

Chlorophyll a

The rating for Chlorophyll a is determined by comparing the annual arithmetic mean of its sampled values to fixed target and threshold values. The annual arithmetic mean is shown in the graph at left, as compared to its established target and threshold values.

Five-year Rolling Average

Other Measures of Creek Health:

Oysters

Because they are immobile and will tolerate a fairly wide salinity range, eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) are valuable as an indicator of the relative health of aquatic ecosystems in the tidally-influenced portions of coastal creeks. Sarasota County has established an oyster monitoring program to track the location, types, and status of oyster reefs. Data from this monitoring program is shown below.
Learn more about Oysters »

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Impervious Features

Rain that falls on land that is in a natural state is absorbed and filtered by soils and vegetation as it makes it way into underground aquifers. However, in developed areas, "impervious surfaces" impede this process and contribute to polluted urban runoff entering surface waters. These surfaces include human infrastructure like roads, sidewalks, driveways and parking lots that are covered by impenetrable materials such as asphalt, concrete, brick and stone, as well as buildings and other permanent structures. Soils that have been disturbed and compacted by urban development are often impervious as well.
Learn more about Impervious Features »

Land Use / Land Cover

Land use within a creek's watershed has a major effect on its water quality. In general, less development means better water quality.
Land Cover/Land Use classifications categorize land in terms of its observed physical surface characteristics (e.g. upland or wetland),
and also reflect the types of activity that are taking place on it (agriculture, urban/built-up, utilities, etc.). Florida uses as its
standard a set of statewide classifications which were developed by the Florida Department of Transportation.
Learn more about Land Use and Land Cover »

Acreage and Percentage within each Land Use / Land Cover Category for Whitaker Bayou Basin

Land Use Classification

1990

1995

1999

2005

2011

2014

Trend

Urban & Built-up

3,83077.1%

3,83477.2%

3,83177.1%

3,90378.6%

3,95279.6%

3,92179%

Agriculture

2144.3%

1823.7%

1883.8%

1813.6%

1813.6%

1813.6%

Rangeland

40.1%

40.1%

40.1%

40.1%

40.1%

40.1%

Upland Forests

2354.7%

2495%

2495%

1953.9%

1643.3%

1953.9%

Water

1302.6%

1372.7%

1402.8%

1262.5%

881.8%

881.8%

Wetlands

3156.4%

2324.7%

2274.6%

2294.6%

2224.5%

2224.5%

Transportation and Utilities

2384.8%

3296.6%

3296.6%

3286.6%

3567.2%

3567.2%

Data Sources

The data sources listed below provided water quality data used to create the report on this page. Not all data sources provided data for every creek, and not every Creek Conditions Report used data from all listed data sources. While some data sources have no data for the scored year, they provided period-of-record (historical high, mean, low) data. Click on a data source name to review its metadata.

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